


Flora of the Heart

by Candiedjellibean (Celestialstarpower)



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Hanahaki Disease, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-17 04:15:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29835867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Celestialstarpower/pseuds/Candiedjellibean
Summary: The tales of flowers taking people's lungs because their hearts were not enough were a small part of people's lives, but Sora would find yet that the tale has more merit than it seemed.The petals blooming in his lungs hurt, but what's a little pain for everyone else's happiness?
Relationships: Kairi & Riku & Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Kairi/Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 14





	1. Flower Tails

**Author's Note:**

> So uhh... this came out of nowhere, but I really like this idea. I've never really done a multi chapter fic before, but I definitely plan on finishing this! Unlike the ones I had ended up abandoning, this one has an outline.

On the Destiny Islands there’s many stories. Some are tales of other worlds, and the people living there, though most islanders would learn that they would most likely never get to see those worlds, and most believe that they don’t really exist, though they’ve heard all the stories. 

There’s a story of a beautiful land of flowers blooming all around, their sweet fragrance peppered the air with wonder and bliss. The people were happy there, finding meaning in all the flowers and showing off their knowledge of the language of their flowers. But some would occasionally find their love was unrequited, and so the flowers that surrounded the people would find their way into their lungs, trying as hard as they could to take the overflowing love in their heart with no place to go. And so they suffocate the person, until their feelings are given back, and the love finally finds its right place, so the selfish flowers die.

**~={--}=~**

Sora, Riku and Kairi had heard the tale many times before, warning them that they shouldn’t let their feelings go unsaid, because the flowers would hurt. None of them wanted to be hurt by the flowers, and so the islanders were taught to be as open as they could be with their emotions, good and bad. They were a small community of people, so of course they should care for each other and their neighbors. That’s just how things should be. 


	2. Little Apple Blossom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a sleepover and a flower

Sora flopped unto Riku’s bed, enjoying the feeling of sinking into the many sheets layered on top of the mattress. 

“Oh, come on, Sora. We’ve got homework to do.” 

“I know, it’s just that your bed is so much more _comfortable_ than the one in my house,” Sora replied as he sat up to look at Riku.

Riku laughed, “Ok, if you say so.” 

Sora twisted up into the sheets, wrapping them around himself comfortably as he breathed in. He almost couldn’t believe he was back home, but Sora couldn’t be more grateful to be back to doing dumb stuff for once. He didn’t have to worry and his favorite people in the world were safe. Riku hummed a bit, still waiting for his best friend to stop messing around. Sora crawled out from the now disorderly pile of blankets that lay atop Riku’s bed. 

Sora reluctantly joined Riku in doing homework. If there was one thing Sora would say that he didn’t appreciate, it was this. He never liked homework and would turn it in late or not at all if Riku or Kairi wasn’t around to keep him in check. And now, Aqua would send them homework to fill out weekly for keyblade training. It was rather boring, and he’s not sure if he would have preferred this or saving the world fueled with adrenaline. 

After the paperwork was filled out, Sora was dying of boredom. He was very tired of trying to interpret the stupidly flowery and confusing words of Shakespeare, even after deconstructing the sonnet. Sometimes words just don’t work well enough to communicate. And Sora’s learned a lot about words since he left the islands. He stretched, finally glad to be done, while Riku put their stuff away. 

“Can we do the things we actually came here to do? I want to destroy you in some Street Fighter!” 

“You’re on!” Riku smiled as he reached for a controller. 

Sora managed to win one more match than Riku before they switched gears, and he declared himself the winner. Riku jokingly played up Sora’s claim to being the winner and being the best. Sora laughed along, but also found a warm feeling flooding his face at Riku’s words. It wasn’t a bad feeling, but Sora thought it was strange and something to think about later. He even thought about asking Riku about it later, though his best friend never brought attention to it. Sora assumed Riku never saw it. 

**~={--}=~**

Sora woke up that morning a bit disoriented, even though it had been roughly a month since their semi-permanent return to the islands, he still woke up expecting to get up and moving for the day the moment his eyelids even moved a little. A look around Riku’s room reminded him he was safe and while still half-asleep, crawls into Riku’s bed and falls back asleep, not even realizing what he did. Sora somewhat wakes up to Riku shaking him by the shoulder. 

Sora mumbles incoherently about wanting to sleep five more minutes, and tries to get comfortable again. Riku nudges Sora again, but is swatted away sleepily by Sora. “Sora, c’mon! Let go of me, I gotta take a shower.”

“'Mmnot stopping you..” Sora then feels the pillow he was using shift and gets pulled away. He grabs for another one, muttering the word “Jerk” as he hears Riku heading towards the bathroom, and the water starts running. The sounds of the water, and the removal of a very comfortable pillow has Sora begrudgingly get up, finding no more reasons to stay in bed. Crawling out from under the soft sheets that lined Riku’s bed, Sora fell off the edge of the bed. He yelped in pain as his head hit the floor, shortly followed by the rest of him and a blanket or two that were still wrapped around his legs. 

“Sora?! You ok?” Riku called out from the shower.

“Uhm, yeah! It’s nothing!” Sora yelled as he rubbed the back of his head in pain. 

Recovering from his somewhat rude awakening, Sora threw on his school uniform, looked over his homework, and waited for Riku to get out of the shower so they could get to school. He was excited to get things going, it was Friday and the weekend awaited just around the corner. 

**~={--}=~**

Kairi joined them on the way to school. “Soo, how was your sleepover on a weekday?” 

“Could’ve been better, we should’ve been able to sleep in.” Sora replied with an exaggerated yawn, “Riku stole the pillow I was sleeping on.” 

“Really? I guess I know how to get you up in the mornings now.” Kairi laughed.

“That “pillow” was me, you goof! I was covered in your drool!” Riku said, laughing with Kairi. 

“Could’ve let me sleep a few more minutes…”

“Awe, you’ll survive, Sora! It’s just school and then you can sleep for however long you like!”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Sora smiled, “It’ll be nice. Maybe not as much as sleeping over though, heh.” 

The trio of friends reached their school, meeting up with Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie for a little while before classes. Despite the boring homework, the classes were fine. The time glided by, not really flying, but not at a snail’s pace either. Sora didn’t find a huge interest in them, but paid as much attention to them as he could. School was still important, even if you skip out on it for a couple of years to save the world. 

Eventually, lunch hour rolled around and Sora was happy to finally get out from behind the desk and move around. It was a bit tiresome for him to stay still for so long. He joined his friends, a happy to show off the delicious food he would cook with Remy, whose name he learned after an almost embarrassing amount of time. Kairi and Riku knew the real reason why he could make the fancy food, but they also knew that he put in as much effort as the small rat that would perch itself atop his head. Sora retained some of those skills outside of working in the bistro, and he was a lot better cook than he was when they were younger. Sora excitedly brought some chocolate mousse to share with them all. Selphie swore he was going to get them all fat from spoiling them with so many sweet treats. 

Kairi was getting into making quilts and was getting lessons weekly from a friend of Aerith. It was something her grandmother did, and it was a way to record and tell stories. Kairi was told that the story of the keyblade war was one of her favorites to listen to when she was little, and she found a lot of other interesting tales from Radiant Garden too. A lot of them surrounded flowers and plants, which were supposedly magical and people who were drawn especially close to the flowers could work with the flowers to perform magic and even predict the future. 

Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie knew about other worlds just as much as Sora, Riku, and Kairi had when they were young. Of course, they didn’t believe it as much as the keyblade wielders did before they found out it was true, but it wasn’t technically breaking world order if they already knew. Well… nobody ever told the three of them they couldn’t and their friends were really good at picking out the truth. Especially Selphie. And Tidus and Wakka were with her when she got the three of them to spill the beans. Surprisingly, it was Riku who broke first, though Sora wasn’t far behind him. Kairi made them promise not to tell a soul. 

“You two sure spend a lot of time together,” Tidus said when hearing about Sora and Riku’s little sleepover.

“Well, yeah! That’s what best friends do after all, what am I supposed to do, not hang out with him?” Sora laughed.

“It’d probably be a crime if you guys _didn't_ spend so much time together!" Kairi added. 

"Honestly, I don't know how you guys don't get sick of each other. After a few days, even these two would get on my nerves," Tidus remarked. 

"Well, we have known each other pretty much all of our lives! We've been two peas in a pod for as long as I can remember!" Sora happily declared.

"Honestly, who could get sick of Sora? He's too good for us," said Riku, smiling.

The lunch bell rang and the friend group gave their goodbyes, heading off to the rest of their classes for the day. Sora walked with Kairi to math, which he enjoyed. He never liked it when people said he couldn't count, he can keep track of numbers pretty well, or his A in math would have been a lie. 

History was a bit of a minefield for Sora. He felt knowledgeable about some of it, but Riku was always the one to keep better track of names and dates. And that was all the class ever seemed to be. And it was hard to keep track of what things in the bigger history of the universe might not have blended with the history of their small islands. He understood how and why people did things, and that was what Sora thought they should be learning about in class.

But the teacher still droned on about general events that happened. Sora didn't think anyone could like the class. It was utterly boring and he felt like the teacher could rival Yen Sid in doing absolutely nothing. And in making dry and boring lectures.

Kingdom Hearts blessed Sora if he didn't slip up about something, and his history teacher grew tired of the boy getting dates wrong even if by a couple days and adding facts that weren't in the book. Everyone believed Sora mysteriously disappeared for a while, and some people thought he was a witch or something in his return, and especially the history teacher. The teacher would make claims of the boys, but especially Sora, doing weird and evil things until Sora asked them to stop as he felt very uncomfortable. Sora saw Riku under similar scrutiny, but the history teacher liked Riku. While Sora was excited to talk about and add on to what they knew, Riku didn't like to talk. His friend wasn't a talkative person in general, but Riku especially didn't like to talk to the teachers and adults. 

Sora understood why, and sometimes, he really wished he was more like Riku. 

Maybe Sora wouldn't be seen as dumb as much as he was. 

He couldn’t wait for school to end. 

**~={--}=~**

Sora picked up some flowers for Kairi that she'd said she wanted to bring to Radiant Garden the next time she went over. There were some varieties on the islands that the world hadn't heard of and the people there prided themselves on their knowledge of plants and had a huge catalogue for other worlds. He gave one of them to his mom when he got home, and greeted his older sister before heading to his room. Sora quickly changed out of the uniform and into some more comfortable clothes. He left his school bag in his room and the house, promising to be home by dinner. 

"How'd you get these?!" Kairi said as she was handed the flowers.

"Well… I saw them growing along the outside wall of the school, out in the back when I stayed after school for detention."

"Our school doesn't do detention, Sora."

"It might as well be. My history teacher has me stay like 30 minutes after school because I talk and move around too much." 

"Wha- Sora, why didn't you tell anyone?"

"It's fine, I get my math homework done then." 

Kairi gave him one of the flowers back. "You can't just let them do that. It's not right."

"I'm going to be ok."

Kairi sighed worriedly. "Thank you for the flowers. I appreciate it, really." 

"Of course. I'd do anything for my friends."

She hugged him goodbye, and left, giving her friend a worried smile. He stood there as she left, feeling a little guilty now that she's worried about him staying after school every other day. He almost wished he didn't give her the flowers. Then he wouldn't have said anything about the history teacher.

When he looked into the palm of his hand, she left one of the flowers for him.

**~={--}=~**

He was back before dinner like he promised. Sora put the flower Kairi left for him on his windowsill, right by his bed. Falling to sleep that night, he thought about how they were always told to tell your friends and family how you're feeling. Sora didn't believe in it anymore. Nobody would have liked him if he really said what he was feeling. Everyone needed him to be happy and cheerful, and that meant he shouldn’t show off the parts of him he didn’t want them to see. 

He felt the desire to be more like Riku surge to the forefront of his brewing thoughts. Sora never saw anyone think of his best friend as stupid, or clumsy, or that all his work had boiled down to dumb luck. Riku was always praised for his achievements and thought of as skilled and smart. Someone to look up to. He thought so too, when he was younger.

Sora knows there’s more to his best friend than that, he’s known Riku all his life, and almost better than he knew himself. Riku’s made mistakes, and he’s been forgiven, Sora even found a way to get Riku to forgive himself for all he’s done and support him all along the way to the person he is now. To be one of the best people that anyones’ ever known. (He was always the best in Sora’s opinion, even when he sucked.) 

Sora wished for the same of himself. He still hasn’t forgiven himself. For nearly falling to darkness. For leaving everyone safe and home, but hurt until they made him come back. For failing to protect Kairi. For falling into traps. For leading people astray. For being part of the reason Roxas, Xion, and Naminé were hurt. The misery he caused in his path to get here felt undeserving for all of them. 

His head grew tired and his thoughts began to have a static fuzz. And after his eyes were closed, the last dregs of consciousness leaving him, the flower on the sill began to move.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is no set schedule for this, but I am really excited to share as soon as I get it out! Kudos and comments are immensely appreciated and I hope to get the next one out soon!
> 
> Also, I named this chapter after Apple Blossom by The White Stripes. They recently released a music video for the song (not that this song is new, it would be old enough to drink if it was a person), and it really helped me get into the emotional mindset for writing this!


End file.
